AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi all,

Very exciting. I think my muscovy eggs are starting to hatch. But i need a little advice.

Ok. Well they're not due to hatch until tomorrow, mum's done a great job and looked after herself as well as the eggs. I went to check on her today and she had kicked out one egg from the nest. I took this as a sign that the egg was no good. So I decided to take the discarded egg and crack it open to see if it was in fact a dud. To my complete surprise, I cracked the shell on the ground and it cheeped! I immediately ceased the cracking and have returned the egg to her nest. I didn't break the membrane, only the shell. Now i feel really bad! I hope I haven't doomed the poor little thing I've just been back to check on mum and the eggs, and she has kicked that egg out of the nest again, but she has pecked bits of the shell off where I cracked it, and I can see something moving around under the membrane and it made another peeping noise. Is there a reason she has turfed out this egg when it obviously has a duckling in it? Will the duckling be alright now that I've cracked it's shell? Should I be helping it get out of the egg by breaking the membrane or just leave it to hatch or not by itself?

Now silly me has been pretty busy lately and really wasn't expecting these eggs to hatch so I'm a little under prepared. I'm going out tomorrow to grab some food, if they hatch today is there anything I can feed to them until I get hold of some proper food?

If mum is penned off by herself, is it ok for me to just leave mum to look after them or do I need to take them off her and put them in a brooding area with a lamp etc? or is that only if I artificially hatch eggs?

I so should've been more prepared

I'm also a little concerned about the heat. It's pretty hot here(35 today) and I have mum and the eggs in a shed, it's very warm in the shed during the day, I have all the doors open so there is some air flow, but mum and eggs are penned into their own little area as they share the shed with the other ducks. I'm concerned the ducklings will die of overheating, should I be looking to move mum and ducklings to another spot after they hatch or is warmth a good thing for them for the first little while?

Thanks anyone for your help, I should have a little more faith in mother nature and my ducks next time >_<

Congratulations...its an exciting time isn't it!

Has this duck hatched ducklings before? Sometimes when they're new they can actually freak out when their eggs start moving and peeping and sometimes can actually kill ducklings as they hatch. It is a little odd she keeps pushing the egg out so I would be a little wary of her recation.

In some cases ducks who didn't do well on their first hatch can go on to be good mothers for future hatches, but to be on the safe side I would keep a close eye on how she's handling her ducklings. You may very well have to take them off her if she isn't being motherly toward them. This might mean being up at first light to check her reaction if any have hatched over night.

If all is fine with her, you generally have a good 24 hours after hatch until you have to worry about food. They generally use this time to find their feet, strengthen and dry out before Mum leaves the nest with them and takes them to food and water. I've seen them eat earlier than this, but if it takes you an extra day to find food, don't panic. Don't forget to make sure their water dish is shallow because they'll want to stand in it and dabble in the water. When you put a deeper tub in for mum to bathe you would be best of watching her and removing the tub when she's finished as if the ducklings get in and can't get out, they will drown.

Also make sure their food and water is quite close to each other as when they're little especially they need drinks of water to help wash the dry food down. (They'll mess up the water constantly by carrying food to it too). You'll be totally over water changes after a couple of weeks!

Good luck with them!

Thanks Roova,

This is the duck's first hatch so I shall definitely keep an eye on her. She seems to be pecking a little at the other eggs in the nest but is still sitting on them and is still acting protective over them when I come near. The one that is cracked is still making noise and I can hear it scratching around in the egg. The membrane is now quite dry where the shell's been pecked off so I hope it can still get out by itself. I've left the egg just outside the nest so it's not too far away from mum if/when it hatches. Fingers crossed the little guy makes it! My stomach sank when I heard it cheep when I cracked it

I'm just about to leave for work, but I'll check on her again when I get home tonight and hopefully it's all still good. I've just changed her bedding so it's nice and dry and clean and I'll take out the mum's water tub tomorrow. It's probably too high for the ducklings to get in anyway, but just to be safe I'll take it out. Good to hear that they can go for 24hrs without food to start with, big relief.

Thanks again! Work is going to go sooo slowly tonight.

If the membrane is really dry you might be able to spray some water on it - but just a little.

I really don't think the egg/duckling will far well out from under Mum's warmth. If she won't accept the egg under her, are you able to keep it warm inside until it hatches? You can pop it under a lamp with a little jar of water close by and try to keep the temperature around 37 degress. (Not the easiest I know). Once she has other babies under her I would then reintroduce it back with the others (well before she leaves the nest with them though).

I really hope this works out for you, but I don't like the sound of her pecking at the other eggs. Hopefully its out of interest rather than aggression. Fingers crossed!

Ok, back from work now. I checked in on mum and eggs and the egg hasn't hatched yet and is fairly cold, I've taken it into the house with me, duckling is still alive in there because I can see it moving and hear it breathing. I've got it set up in a box with a heat lamp, water for humidity and a thermometer to keep an eye on temps. She's still sitting on the others, so I'll double check on them in the morning and see how she is.

I noticed when I collected the cracked egg, it's been pipped, there's a tiny hole in the membrane with a spec of blood, which I'm assuming is good since the duckling will be able to breathe properly through that. Hope the little fella can hatch ok by tomorrow. At least I'm not working so I can keep an eye on it. Also lucky that today has been very very hot, so not being under mum might not have been a killer, she was off the eggs for quite a while today anyway since it was about 38 degrees here and still about 28 and quite humid.

If this little one survives after all this I think I'm gonna have to keep it. It hasn't had the smoothest start to life.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll keep you posted as to how it goes in the morning.

2 or 3 ducklings have hatched now, mum is still sitting. I managed to distract her with food so I could slip the cracked egg back under her and she seems to have accepted it for now. Hopefully the little one makes it out, it stayed alive in there over night with the lamp. I finally tracked down a place that had feed in stock, so that's all sorted. Now just have to wait for the rest to hatch and make sure mum's coping ok.

Ahhhhhh, little babies. So far so good! She must have felt them moving around under her and if she hasn't hurt them thats a really great sign. Well done! Now try not to disturb mum too much as hard as that it

She'll probably be really thirsty too if she hasn't had left the nest for a day or two so it wouldn't hurt to have food and water where she can reach it (make sure its not too deep for the babies too).

Ok, all is well and I have a happy duck family

5/5 ducklings. The one I cracked yesterday made an attempt to hatch, but where the membrane had dried out was stuck to it's feathers on the inside. Also the inner membrane bit had dried out a little bit and made it a bit difficult for it to break out, so I helped it out of its egg. It was really tough to get the dried membrane part off its feathers, so I don't think it would've managed to hatch on its own, but hoping it'll be fine now that it's out.

I don't want to disturb them tonight, but I'll check in again in the morning and fingers crossed they're all still alive and happy.



The egg at the front there with a patch of missing shell is the one I had to help out. Mum was off having a drink at the time. I have a very shallow dish of water in there, and also another deeper dish of water that's up off the ground at about mum's head height for her to drink that the ducklings can't get to.

Gorgeous
I'd love an update when they're all fluffed up and looking ultra cute! I see you didn't get anything from the white round one there. What a disappointment!

Well they all made it overnight and are looking happy and healthy they are adorable!



lol, yeah that round one never hatched, I was hoping it would be some kind of new morph